• Understand the key issues in global food politics today
• Analyze how political institutions govern commodity chains
• Explore the political and ethical implications of what we eat and drink every day
• Gain practical skills around farming and agroecology
• Critically read and analyze texts from multiple disciplines
• Improve overall ability to clearly express ideas and opinions, both orally and in writing

I used this activity in an upper-level Political Science elective titled "Global Environmental Politics." Most of the students in the course were Political Science majors. I spent about three weeks talking with students about the global food system in this course. The fundamental question I used to organize this unit was: What do you know about where the food you eat comes from? I started week one by talking about food we eat on a daily basis (e.g., for breakfast, we may eat a banana grown in Honduras, eat jam that was packaged in England, or drink coffee made from beans grown in Brazil). I emphasized that the very act of eating is political and links us to global networks of food production, distribution, and consumption. We also learned about the ways that social movements are working to reshape commodity chains by promoting local production, fair trade, and labor justice. Discussing these alternative modes of resistance and production made food justice initiatives such as the Parsons Family Farm more relevant.

Saint Martin's University (SMU) is a Catholic Benedictine Institution. One of the key tenets of the rule of Saint Benedict is "They live by the labor of their hands." This activity helps students make connections between issues around sustainability, food justice, work, and climate resilience by engaging them in an experiential learning opportunity at an urban community farm in Olympia, Washington. While we don't deal with Catholic religious teaching explicitly, my hope is that in doing this work students will reflect on key Benedictine values such as stewardship, moderation, community, respect for persons and social justice.

The 20-acre farm, initially bought by the Parsons family in 2014, was originally intended for land development. However, the Parsons purchased the land with the intent of creating a sustainable development model that can preserve ecosystem services while also demonstrating the long-term financial viability of such development, in turn providing an alternative to the current ecologically destructive model of housing development. Of the twenty acres, seven were placed in a local land trust. The rest of the acreage is dedicated to diversified agriculture for local sale and consumption. They've grown hops to sell to local breweries, have put in wine grapes and lavender, and have expanded an already existing apple orchard. The farm is practicing a type of "climate resilient" agriculture, trying out a diverse array of plants to see which will thrive best as climate change worsens. Committed to local food resilience, Parsons Family Farm hence tries to provide a market-based solution for climate mitigation.

Students worked for about 15-20 hours at the farm. These visits were coordinated with the owner of the farm and I accompanied them on all the trips. I was fortunate to have a colleague who helped initiate the partnership accompany us on all the trips. He is an expert in agro-ecology and taught students basic agro-ecological methods around preparing the soil/planting, etc. We planted beans, spinach, corn, lettuce, broccoli, potatoes, etc. Our agreement stated that we would help harvest the food and donate it to the local community kitchen.

Some topics we address in relation to the work this farm is doing are as follows: What issues/questions do these types of farms raise from an equity perspective? Is the Parsons Family Farm a good example of a "food justice" initiative? Can we effectively use capitalist tools to address climate change? How can social justice initiatives at Catholic institutions foster inclusive communities?

Only one of the students in the group had had any previous experience of working at a farm. In reading their journals, I found that most of the rest of the students had a great deal of trepidation at the prospect of spending 15-20 hours at a farm. However, in their final papers, most of them talked about what a rewarding experience it had been for them. Some of them also talked about how the experience gave them hope for the future. One student wrote, "This class, while bleak at times, gave me hope. A large part of that came from the service learning project; while not perfect, it showed that some organizations are making impacts and I got to help."

I assessed this activity by asking the students to submit bi-weekly reflections on their experiential learning component. Some of the questions I asked them to reflect on were: What's going well and what isn't? What are you learning and how is it relevant to the course material? What inspired you about the learning site? What were you hoping to learn?

At the end of the semester, the students needed to submit a final paper. Below is a brief description of the prompt I gave them:

Your paper should include a brief description of the farm, its goals and/or mission, its activities, and the specific role you played/work you did on the farm this semester. Your report should also include an analysis of where the farm has placed itself in the landscape of the overall environmental/food justice movement and the extent to which it incorporates issues of race, gender, and class in its work. Consider the kinds of strategies they employ in their work. (For example, does it address issues of food access and sovereignty in its work? In what ways is the agriculture practiced there addressing climate change? Does the farm address equity issues in its work?) You should put your report in conversation with relevant assigned material from class. Papers should be 5-6 pages in length, typed, and double-spaced. You do not need to do any external research for this paper, but you will be expected to use at least 6-7 readings from the syllabus that pertain to your paper. A successful assignment explicitly references environmental/food justice concepts and frameworks that were taught in class.

*Alkon, Alison.2014. "Food Justice and the Challenge to Neoliberalism." Gastronomica. 14(2): 27-40

Alkon, Alison Hope and Teresa Marie Mares. 2012. "Food Sovereignty in US Food Systems: Radical Visions and Neoliberal Constraints," Agriculture and Human Values. Vol 29:3.

Allen, P. 2010. "Realizing Justice in Local Food Systems." Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society. 3 (2): 295–308. 


Altieri, Miguel a., and Victor Manuel Toledo. 2011. "The Agroecological Revolution in Latin America: Rescuing Nature, Ensuring Food Sovereignty and Empowering Peasants." Journal of Peasant Studies 38 (3) (July): 587–612.

*Morales, Alfonso. 2011. "Growing Food and Justice: Dismantling Racism through Sustainable Food Systems," in Alison Hope Alkon and Julian Ageyman (eds.), Cultivating Food justice: Race, Class, Sustainability (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2011), 156-157.

Rossett, Peter. 2011. "Food Sovereignty and Alternative Paradigms to Confront Land Grabbing and the Food and Climate Crises." Development 54(1): 21-30.

Slocum, Rachel. "Anti-Racist Practice and the Work of Community Food Organizations. Antipode, 2006. 


*These were the readings I assigned to students in class.